THE ONLY time Brendan Rodgers offered a smile post-match at Selhurst Park was as he summed up the perverse predicament Liverpool find themselves in.

Brendan Rodgers admits that he needs to improve Liverpool's defence next season[GETTY]

"We go top with 81 points with a week to go in the season, and we sit here devastated," said the Liverpool manager.

The brutal, late capitulation against Crystal Palace, a three goal advantage tossed away in nine nauseating minutes for the visitors, added to the sense that this will ultimately be a season tinged with regret at Anfield.

And yet, presuming Manchester City now hold their nerve, the reality is that they will only just have fallen short of a target no one expected them to reach. The strides Rodgers - who has agreed a new four-year contract - has overseen in transforming a team that trailed in seventh last season remains the remarkable story in what is another remarkable Premier League campaign.

If it is difficult to maintain perspective, given it feels it has to be now for Liverpool in ending that 24-year wait for title success given the complications next season will bring when rivals, for one, will become stronger, then it is far easier to highlight areas for improvement.

For much of the season, Rodgers has revelled in the attacking prowess his players have displayed in plundering 99 goals, though when it mattered he was left to bemoan a "Roy of the Rovers" approach.

The speed with which Dwight Gayle added to Damien Delaney's goal for Palace - 3-0 to 3-2 inside 120 seconds - caught Liverpool flush on the chin, leaving them punch drunk and creating an air of inevitability surrounding the subsequent equaliser. Yet there was a naivety evident which also reared in the costly defeat by Chelsea the previous week, a failure to grind out results when circumstances demand that is the way forward.

The Reds couldn't stop Dwight Gayle from leading a Palace comeback at Selhurst Park [STUART ROBINSON]

We keep working and we'll try and make more strides forward next season

Brendan Rodgers

"To come here and be 3-0 up and concede three goals, as a coach, that's what you have to look at," said Rodgers. "We just didn't defend well enough.

"We've improved a lot in many aspects of our game and that will be an area I'm sure we'll look at - and nobody more so than myself."

Being cavalier is not the keystone to Rodgers' football philosophy. It is control he fundamentally craves and yet on too many occasions Liverpool have emerged victorious while sailing close to the wind. Other times, they have simply come unstuck.

Consider these victories: 5-3 at Stoke, 3-2 at Fulham and Norwich, 6-3 at Cardiff, 4-3 at home to Swansea. Now think of the 3-1 defeat at Hull and the 2-2 draw at Newcastle.

On 16 occasions they have conceded two or more goals in a league game and the second phase of Rodgers' work - and it was always going to be done in phases given how far they lagged behind - will be to ensure Liverpool become as good without the ball as they are with it.

He will have to look at himself in order to correct that design fault, but it will also take an influx of new players and the careful manipulation of a market newly open to Liverpool by virtue of Champions League qualification.

After the see-saw win over Swansea in February, Rodgers said his defenders made errors that could not be remedied on the training pitch. The future of Daniel Agger, for one, is uncertain.

It is interesting to consider where Liverpool might be had Rodgers been allowed to buy Ashley Williams from his former club last summer, but that was vetoed on account of his age and price.

Rodgers has failed to find an adequate replacement for ex-skipper Jamie Carragher [GETTY]

Around £20m was lavished instead on Mamadou Sakho, and youngster Tiago Ilori sent on loan to Granada, yet the manager still craves a lead defender in the mould of Jamie Carragher, someone who is streetwise and inclined to organise.

What is undeniable is that Liverpool will have to be more productive in the transfer market this summer than their dealings 12 months ago have proved

In total, 20 players have started league games - including Andre Wisdom now on loan at Derby County - though this has been a challenge based upon just 14 of them.

The moment that truly exposed Liverpool's hopes was not Steven Gerrard's slip against Chelsea, but Jordan Henderson's red card in the dying embers of the win over Manchester City. His three-match ban has left Rodgers bereft, with the midfielder's energy and tenacity in front of the defence sorely missed.

Adding genuine depth to the squad is a must given the demands the Champions League adds to domestic matters. Chelsea have played 56 matches, Manchester City 55, Arsenal 54 and Manchester United 55. In contrast, Liverpool's visit to Palace was their 42nd.

"I've seen a lot this season that has given us great hope going forward," said Rodgers, who must coax the same level of performance from Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge. "We keep working and we'll try and make more strides forward next season."